Santa Clause done came to town

We are back from Christmas vacation and we had such a great time in FL! Here are the high points in pictures...

The first night there we had a playdate with my friend Heather and cutie patootie Lyla.
I went to New Orleans to see my friend Jo, meet her new baby boy Brant, and pick up Kristi and bring her home to Pcola for Christmas. It was such a fun visit and Brant is so sweet and absolutely adorable. I hope I get to see more of him!

We went out to the beach one night to eat at Flounders and look at all the lights they had brought over from the now closed Zoo. It was odd to me to have lit up kangaroos and gorillas on the boardwalk, but whatever...

I was SO happy to get to see a bunch of my favorite girls while in town. Its hard to see everyone so we attempted a get together in order to just see each other all at once. It was a fun little girly brunch and I was happy to be surrounded by so many sweet friends, and babies! I finally met Charleigh Lynnee, and she is PRECIOUS!
We started baking some cookies, my sister in law Chris is quite the cook, and my mom found this cute apron...how cute is K in it?!?!?!

On Christmas Eve my sisters and their families came over. It was a house FULL and I was so happy to see all my nieces and nephews together and having such a blast. The cousins all drew names and they had to get a gift for one of their other cousins. The kids exchanged their gifts with each other, and then they opened presents from Nanny and Papa. After all the eating and present opening was complete, we all headed to church for the Christmas Eve service. I loved taking up all those rows with our big family, we are so very blessed. Kennedy was SO cute in her red dress and I could not for the life of me get her to stand still and look at the camera! Christmas morning was so fun! I was excited that Santa was coming to see Kennedy this year. She was super excited to see all her new toys. I think she liked her ice cream truck a lot!the kids on Christmas morning
Dad bought mom a fire pit for Christmas so that night we made some s'mores. YUMMMMMMMM. I really do love the taste of roasted marshmellows! Our cousins came over too, JJ and Angie, who we dont get to see a lot, so my brother and I were excited to spend some time with them.
One night we met up with Ash and Hamid for some dinner and Sherlock Holmes. Good movie, even better fun friends. I love these guys!
We were able to see so many people while we were in town since we were there for 9 whole days. One night we hung out with my old friend David and his wife Noelle and their adorable kids. The kids had such a fun time playing together. I love how they just meet and are immediately cool playing with each other all night long...
I had to take to Tor to the airport to go to a wedding in Orlando. It was funny but I didnt realize we wouldnt see one another again til the summer until I pulled into the airport drop off lane. I of course started to tear, being the emotional crazy person I am. I just love my TORI! we left the next day headed back to Ohio and it was a long trip. but we had a great driver!

I hope you all had a really fantastic Christmas and are pumped for the new year. Our year will definitely be different from the past considering recent events, so stay tuned for more info on that...

HAPPY NEW YEAR's EVE EVERYONE!

Creative Party Place

Holiday Fun

Dont you just love December! There are so many fun activities during the holidays. Its the most wonderful time of year! When we were headed back from Jacksonville, I made a list of all the Christmas movies I wanted to watch. I was trying to do my own little 25 days of Christmas like ABC Family, but I wanted to be able to pick my own movies, so I made my list and have checked off quite a few. I still have 8 more days to watch some more, I may not make it all the way to 25. Some are repeats, bc they are just too good to not watch at least twice!

DAY1 Christmas Vacation
DAY2 The Grinch
DAY3 Elf
DAY4 White Christmas
DAY5 Four Christmases
DAY6 Home Alone
DAY7 12 Men Of Christmas
DAY8 Santa Clause
DAY9 Santa Clause 2
DAY10 Home Alone2
DAY11 Santa Baby
DAY12 Santa Baby 2
DAY13 A Carol Christmas (STUPID)
DAY14 Santa Clause 3
DAY15 Love Acutally
DAY16 A Christmas Story

That's what I've got so far. Not too bad huh!?!!? Im still hoping to watch Fred Clause (never seen it), A Christmas Story, and a couple of those Ive seen need to be watched again fo sho...I know what you're thinking, and yes, I have stellar ambitions, dont be jealous =)

In other holiday excitement, we finally had our Jingle Jam family production at church. From what everyone said, it was awesome! Im so glad all our practicing and hard work paid off! Im hoping it touched people this Christmas season.

We also had our small group Christmas party this week. We decided to do ugly sweaters and cheap Yankee sway gifts. It was hilarious what some people wore. Our friend Kyle wore a mullet wig and Kennedy was scared to death of him. Her feelings were the same as with Santa. Justin and I wore some $5 shirts we found at Target that looked sweaters. Kristi, notice that Justin is doing the soft smile, just for you guys =)


We also had some interesting gifts for the game...the food however was delicious and Im MAD at all you small group friends who left me SO MANY leftovers. I have been eating them all week! I guess I'll need my stretchy pants this month sooner than I thought!Sweet Ellie slept thru all the madness

We leave for Pensacola in 72 hours!!!!! I'm so excited! I cannot wait to see my mom and dad and go to NOLA to get Kristi and meet baby Brant! It's going to be SO great! I'm ready for some warmer weather. I'm hoping it snows before we leave though, I know crazy me wanting snow, but the forecast says it might on Saturday. I just want to take K out in her little sled!

What fun things are you doing these holidays? Christmas parties? Traditions? Im curious to see what everyone does!

Dear Santa, sorry I threw a fit...

Tonight was a fun filled family night! we started in the village of Newtown at their Winterfest! It was so cute and fun and full of holiday type activities. There was a horse drawn carriage ride, cookie decorating, ice sculpting, hot cocoa, carolers, and Santa! I was so excited that Santa was there! I have really been wanting to take Kennedy but havent found the time nor did I want to pay, but this was FREE. We got in to where he was and saw that Mrs. Claus was also there, which I loved! They were the best I'd ever seen, the real deal! I was glad we were able to have K with this Santa and all for no cost at all, and I could take as many pictures as I wanted as well. Kennedy, however, was in no way excited. I had no clue she would react the way she did. Santa was a hit and miss this year. I suppose every kid has that one or two years where Santa is cool and all for bringing the presents, but not so much for lap sitting.

On the carriage ridethe pretty horsiesheaded back to the car

Afterwards, we went to dinner, and then to the mall where they have an indoor play area. It was about 30 degrees so indoor was key, but she needed to run around and get down with her bad self. She had a good ol time. Then we got a little ice cream and headed home. She was in a much better mood when we got home, with a full belly and fun playtime. We got her ready for bed and got her in her pj's. She likes the santa on her pj's, just not the real santa. I kept pointing to him and telling her it was Santa, and she would smile, I guess Santa himself is just not ok with her this year.

Maybe next year she will be a little happier with the overall Santa situation...

its beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Aren't you so sad that you can only have up your Christmas decorations for about 4-5 weeks??? Well, I guess you could have them up whenever you want, but the average American decorates after Thanksgiving and takes it down on New Years...which is what we do, and I waste NO time getting it up as soon as Turkey Day is done!

Speaking of Thanksgiving, we had a GREAT time in Jacksonville with all the Manny's. I already posted pictures on Facebook from that so no need to write about it. I do, however, need to tell you that I saw New Moon, and thought it just as dumb as Twilight. The books may be good, but the films need better actors.

Anywho, my mom was asking to see pictures of the house so here are some of the highlights. I have some little things around in the kitchen and bathroom, but we'll stick to the main areas of decorating now. Also, Im super bummed Justin hasnt had time to get our lights up outside yet. I NEED LIGHTS HONEY!

Kennedy had SO much fun running around Lowe's. Yea, we just get our tree from Lowe's, they are just too cheap to pass up. And Justin loves going to Lowe's. She was into everything, climbing on everything, running a muck...it was nuts...but so cute!


The Manny Family Stockings

The Living Room

Kennedy's wreath on her bedroom door. I just got some stuff from Target and put it all on their, girlysome, of course...

Her tree, pink and purple =)

The Dining Room

I set the table! i thought it would be fun =)
Mom, I dont think you ever taught me how to properly set a place setting, so this is what I did based on what I thought looked best. Oh, and thanks for my cute dishes from three years ago =) glad Im finally using them
I hope all of you have gotten around to decorating! Only 4 weeks of holiday fun left!

Kennedy loves to Par-tay!

I am the WORST blogger EVER! I cannot believe that I have gone so very long with no updates or new pictures. Sorry about that people who are somewhat interested in my random stories...

We have been super busy around here with different things so I blame that for my lack of attention to the ole blog. However, we are leaving for Jacksonville on Sunday so I know it will be a while after that for me to post again so I figured I should give you something.

So, nothing super exciting or new has happened. I do have some fun pictures from the past couple weeks though! Also, tomorrow morning we are having a big Thanksgiving food drive type thing at church. We have prepared grocery bags of thanksgiving meal type groceries to take to people in a complex down the street from our church. We are hoping to do this every Saturday, (not always thanksgiving type foods though), and really get to know some of these people and hopefully build some relationships. I cant wait to see what cool things God does when we step out. I know its going to be SO GREAT!

Picture time! These are some pictures from one of KP's little friends first birthday party. She LOVES a party! She is just so social and has a blast when there are lots of people around to play with.



I hope you all have a very happy thanksgiving! I'll see you from FLORIDA! WOO HOO!

Love your neighbor, send a shoebox

Once Halloween is over, I am in full on Christmas mode. I start looking for all the right gifts, thinking decor, and planning for fun parties and cute Christmas cards. For some people however, Christmas just comes and goes. There are so many opportunities to make Christmas awesome for someone you dont even know! This year at our church, they are doing Operation Christmas Child, with Samaritan's Purse. I did this when I was in high school at my church back home, but our church here has done Angel Tree, so I began to pick kids off of there the past few years. I was SO excited this year to do OCC though, because last Christmas, my best friend Kristi, who works for SP, was handing the shoeboxes out! I dont know what country or which kids will be receiving the shoeboxes we filled, but it would be neat if it just happened to land in Uganda with our friends.

So, I am writing all of this because I had no idea that you could do all of this without your church doing it. Just go online to Operation Christmas Child The drop down menu will have something that says Pack a Shoe Box. There you can print off the labels that go on the box (boy or girl and age). Fill it with some great stuff, and then find the closest drop off point to you. There are a lot of different churches and organizations dropping them off, so just because your church doesnt do it, doesnt mean you cant find a collection place that can send it off for you! Just type in your zip code and it will tell you where.

We picked the 2-4 age group bc I thought I may know what that age likes best. We got things like crayons, balls, pretend doctor sets, recorders, t shirts for each of them, toothbrushes, fun princess stuff for the girl and a doll, and construction stuff for the boy. Justin wanted to inspire musical and educational things =) ha! I got them toys they could play with alone, and toys that were to play with their friends. Just some ideas of what you can fill it with. You can do snacks too, nonperishable of course. I did sour patch kids, rice krispie treats, and goldfish. Some of my own faves!
SO WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR! ITS SO EASY TO DO! and these kids will LOVE IT! Drop off is November 16-23 so you have three weeks!

{HALLOWEEN}

For three years in a row, my friends and I talk about having a real Halloween party, costumes and all! The first year, it was sort of a last minute idea. Last year, I had a baby two weeks prior, so nothing got done then either. Finally this year we were prepared and had a fabulous costume party with some pretty interesting costumes. Here are some fun pictures from the party! Can you tell what we all are???
The Spooky Dessert table

the head piece was snug so she didnt stay in this all night, she was a trooper tho, not really being able to see and all =)
Josh and Sara, Josh won the costume contest for his awesome bacon strip...Jimmy and Julie, the party was at their house, and it was so cute with lots of cobwebs and spiders...Bacon, a pirate, Charlie Weiss, and what used to be a refrigerator, all playing rockbandKennedy loves Gunnarone more picture of my sweet Lion